Abstract not available. / Until now, historians have devoted relatively little attention to the rich field of patients' struggles with chronic progressive disease. This study proposes to begin to fill this lacuna by examining in detail the meaning and implications of one central principle of nineteenth-century clinical medicine: incurability. Though the judgement of incurability is the product of a medical encounter, its significance extended well beyond the clinic. For being incurable in nineteenth-century France was a social event in the broadest sense, putting the individual at the centre of a complex web of people with different expectations and duties. Patients and their farnilies sought relief and solace within the confines of their homes and, frequently enough, in hospital. The physician was expected to prognosticate and to heal, while women, usually members of the immediate family or a religious order, carried out the duties of daily care. Either by choice or institutional diktat, many incurably ill individuals were visited by a priest or some other representative of the Church. Finally, their lives were deeply influenced by the decisions of local and, to an ever increasing degree, national politicians mandated to tackle questions of charity and social policy. Each chapter of this thesis will examine facets of the experience of incurability within the context of existing social structures: medical, religious, economic, and political.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.84870 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Szabo, Jason |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of History.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002083191, proquestno: AAINR01783, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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